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Overview

The city
of Granada is placed at the foot of the Sierra
Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers,
Beiro, Darro and Genil, at an elevation of 738 metres above sea level
yet only one hour from the Mediterrean coast, the Costa Tropical. At the 2005 census, the population of the city of Granada proper
was 236,982, and the population of the entire urban area was
estimated to be 472,638, ranking as the 13th-largest urban area of
Spain. About 3.3% of the population did not hold Spanish
citizenship, the largest number of these (31%) coming from South America. Its nearest airport is FGL
Airport.

The
Alhambra, a Moorish citadel and palace, is in Granada. It
is one of the most famous items of the Islamic historical legacy that makes Granada a hot
spot among cultural and tourist cities in Spain. The Almohad urbanism with some fine examples of Moorish
and Morisco constructions is preserved at
the part of the city called the Albaicín.

History

Gates of Fajalauza, in the City
Walls.

Pre-Nasrid

The city has been inhabited from the dawn of history. There was an Ibero-Celt settlement here, which made contact
in turn with Phoenicians, Carthagenians and Greek. By
the 5th century BCE, the Greeks had
established a colony which they named Elibyrge or
Elybirge (Greek: ). Under Roman rule, in the early centuries CE, this
name had become "Illiberis". As Illiberis, the city minted its own
coins. The Visigoths maintained the
importance of the city as a centre of both ecclesiastical and civil
administration and also established it as a military stronghold. It
was also managed by Eastern Roman
Empire for 60 years.

A Jewish community established itself in what
was effectively a suburb of the city, called"Gárnata" or "Gárnata
al-yahud" (Granada of the Jews). It was with the help of this
community that Moorish forces under Tariq ibn-Ziyad first took the city in 711,
though it was not fully secured until 713. They referred to it
under the Iberian name "Ilbira", the remaining Christian community
calling this "Elvira", and it became the capital of a province of
the Caliphate of Cordoba. Civil
conflicts that wracked the Caliphate in the early eleventh century
led to the destruction of the city in 1010. In the subsequent
reconstruction, the suburb of Gárnata (Arabic: غرناطة) was incorporated in
the city, and the modern name in fact derives from this. With the
arrival of the Zirid dynasty in 1013, Granada
became an independent emirate Taifa of
Granada. By the end of the eleventh century, the city had
spread across the Darro to reach what is now the site of the
Alhambra.

Nasrid Emirate of Granada

In 1228, with the departure of the Almohad prince, Idris, who left
Iberia to take the Almohad leadership, the ambitious Ibn al-Ahmar
established the longest lasting Muslim
dynasty on the Iberian peninsula - the Nasrids. With the Reconquista in full swing after the conquest of
Cordoba in 1236, the Nasrids aligned themselves with Ferdinand III of Castile,
officially becoming a tributary state in 1238. The state officially
became the Emirate of Granada in 1238.

Walls of the Alcazaba Cadima (XI
century)

Granada was held as a vassal to Castile for many decades, and
provided trade links with the Muslim world, particularly the gold
trade with the sub-saharan areas south of Africa. The Nasrids also provided troops for Castile
while the kingdom was also a source of mercenary fighters from
North Africa.

On January 2, 1492, the last Muslim sultan in Iberia, Muhammad XII, known as Boabdil to
the Spanish, surrendered complete control of Granada, to Ferdinand and Isabella, Los Reyes Católicos ("The
Catholic Monarchs"), after the city was besieged.

See Nasrid dynasty for a full list of
the Nasrid rulers of Granada. The most prominent members of the
dynasty were:

Granada after 1492

The Capitulation of Granada by
F.

Padilla: Muhammad XII before Ferdinand and Isabella.

The capture of Muslim Granada by the forces of Ferdinand and
Isabella is one of the more significant events in Granada's
history. The terms of the surrender treaty explicitly allowed the
city's Muslim inhabitants to continue unmolested in their faith and
customs. By 1499, however, Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de
Cisneros grew frustrated with the slow conversion efforts of
Granada's first archbishop, Fernando de Talavera, and undertook a
program of forced baptisms. Cisneros's new tactics, which were a
direct violation of the terms of the treaty, provoked an armed
revolt centered in the Alpujarras, a
rural region to the southwest of the city. In response to the
rebellion, in 1501 the Castilian Crown rescinded the surrender
treaty, demanding that Granada's Muslims convert or emigrate. While
many elites chose to emigrate to North Africa, the majority of the
city's Muslims converted to Christianity while keeping their Islam
secretly, becoming Moriscos, Catholics of Moorish descent.

Over the course of the sixteenth century, Granada took on an ever
more Christian and Castilian character, as immigrants flocked to
the city from other parts of the Iberian Peninsula. The city's
mosques, some of which had been established
on the sites of former Christian churches, were converted to
Christian uses. New structures, such as cathedral and the
Chancillería, or Royal Court of Appeals, helped transform the urban
landscape, and in the wake of the 1492 Alhambra decree that expelled Spain's Jewish
population, Granada's Jewish neighborhood was demolished to make
way for new Christian and Castilian institutions.

San Salvador Church: 16th century, Mudejar Style. With Moorish Almohad patio from the former mosque

El Corral del Carbón: Deposit of merchandise and shelter of
merchants. Adapted after 16th century for theater plays

Hospital Real: Founded in 1504 by the Reyes Católicos, now part of the
University

Santo Domingo Church: Founded in 1512 by the Reyes
Católicos

San José Church: On the site of the "moans"

Almorabitín, the mosque of the Almoravids, one of oldest in Granada, dating from
the 10th century

Sacromonte Abbey: Founded in the 17th century. Legend
says that the catacombs under the church were the site of the
martyrdom of San Cecilio, the city's first bishop and now its
patron saint

Old University: Originally Granada's Jesuit college, this
building now houses the law school of the University of Granada.
The building is particularly notable for its original 17th century
facade.

Bermejas Towers: Strongholds on the encircling wall of the
Alhambra, they date from the 8th and 9th centuries

Basilica of St. John of God (San Juan de Dios): The remains of
this saint are preserved in this Baroque basilica.

The Gate of Elvira: The principal gate to the old city. Part of
the Moorish wall

Casa de los Tiros, 16th century. With a complex iconographic
program of sculpture and painting about Spanish history and full of
cryptograms, it was the palace of Gil Vázquez-Rengifo, who helped
the Catholic Kings in the fight for the city. Nowadays it is a
museum where visitors can follow the history of Granada from the
Middle Age to the present day

The Cube: Main building for CajaGranada has won a lot of international
architects awards.

Zaida Building: Situated in the city centre, this residential
building designed by Alvaro Siza is a
good example of modern architecture surrounded by historical
structures

Although many Muslim buildings were destroyed by the Catholics, who
forced conversion to Catholicism during the Christian era in
Granada, those that remain comprise the most complete group of
Moorish domestic architecture in Europe. Palaces like Dar al-Horra,
or Alcazar Genil, or houses like the house of the Horno de Oro, the
house of Chapiz, or the house of Abén Humeya, are only some of the
most famous. Granada's public baths, like El Bañuelo or the
Alhambra Baths, and the complex of Arab public fountains and wells
(aljibes), are unique in Europe. The
Nasrid infrastructure net (acequias) that feeds the public
fountains and wells still functions in its majority. Among the best
known of Granada's acequias are the Royal Acequia and the
Cadí Acequia.

Districts of Granada

Battles Fountain (Fuente de las
Batallas)

The Realejo

Realejo was the Jewish district at the time of the Nasride Granada.
The Jewish population was so important, that Granada was known from
the Al-Andalûs Country under the name of Granada de los
judios (in Arabic, Garnata Al Yahood). It is today a district
made up of many Andalusian villas, with gardens opening onto the
streets, called Los Carmenes.

The Cartuja

This district contains the Carthusian monastery of the same name:
Cartuja. This is an old monastery started in a late Gothic
style with Baroque exuberant interior decorations. In this district
also, many buildings were created with the extension of the
University of Granada.

Bib-Rambla

The toponym existed at the time of the Arabs. Nowadays, Bib-Rambla
is a high point for gastronomy, especially in its terraces of
restaurants, open on beautiful days. The Arab bazaar
(Alcaicería) is made up of several narrow streets, which
start from this place and continue as far as the cathedral.

The Sacromonte

The Sacromonte neighborhood is located on the extension of the hill
of Albaicín, along the Darro River. This area, which became famous
by the nineteenth century for its predominantly Gitano inhabitants,
is characterized by cave houses, which are dug into the hillside.
The area has a reputation as a major center of flamenco song and
dance, including the Zambra Gitana, Andalusian dance
originating in the Middle East. The zone is a protected cultural
environment under the auspices of the Centro de Interpretación
del Sacromonte, a cultural center dedicated to the
preservation of Gitano cultural forms.

Albayzín
(also written as Albaicín), located on a hill on the right bank of
the river Darro, is the
ancient Moorish quarter of the city and transports the visitor to a
unique world: the site of the ancient city of Elvira, so-called
before the ZiridMoors renamed it Granada. It housed the
artists who went up to build the palaces of Alhambra on the hill
facing it. Time allowed its embellishment. Of particular note is
the Plaza de San Nicolas (Plaza of St Nicholas) from where a
stunning view of the Alhambra can be seen.

The Zaidin

This blue collar neighborhood houses 100,000 residents of Granada,
making it the largest neighborhood or 'barrio'. Traditionally
populated by gypsies, now many residents are from North and West
Africa, China, and many South American countries. Every Saturday
morning it hosts a large outdoor market or "mercadillo", where many
gypsies come and sell their wares of fruits and vegetables, clothes
and shoes, and other sorts of odds and ends.